ACS celebrates National Chemistry Week

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ACS celebrates National Chemistry Week

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An explosion shook Hillsdale Preparatory School on Tuesday after college volunteers held a hydrogen-filled balloon to an open flame. Following the excitement, students received a lecture about general chemistry and physical science.

This week the Hillsdale College American Chemistry Society will join other clubs across the country in celebrating National Chemistry Week. ACS students volunteered this week to perform demonstrations on campus and at Hillsdale Preparatory.

Senior Zoe Norr, ACS program coordinator, said the group celebrates the week “to raise awareness of the importance of chemistry in everyday life.”

Faculty adviser Christopher Hamilton said he sees the week as a way to show why chemistry is fun. He also said this year, “Mole Day” on Oct. 23 falls on Friday. On this date people celebrate Amedeo Avogadro’s constant, a number which relates the number of particles in a substance to its chemical properties.

“We try to get people to celebrate chemistry,” Hamilton said.

ACS volunteers set up demos in the Grewcock Student Union this week. Each day students may witness a different chemical reaction. On Monday, volunteers mixed chemicals to create polyurethane foam. While students popped balloons at Hillsdale Preparatory, the college got to take part in freezing carnations and marshmallows with liquid nitrogen. On Wednesday they made slime using polyvinyl alcohol and borax.

“PVA is a polymer and the borax acts as a cross-linker,” Norr said. “Essentially, cross-linking is comparable to taping together a bunch of long spaghetti strands.”

Thursday’s event is titled “Chromatography and Slushies.” Students have a chance to enjoy the results of mixing liquid nitrogen and fruit juices. The chromatography part involves separating solutions based on their properties.

“We use a black marker to put a dot on a coffee filter.  Then water is dropped on the center of the black dot,” Norr said. “The colors in the black marker will separate based on polarity.  Since water is very polar, the more polar the color is, the farther it will travel on the filter.”

ACS will show “Magnets and Total” on Friday and crush up bags of cereal with high iron content and use magnets to draw out the iron filings.

All students are invited to a tie-dye event this Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Junior Jonathan Wolff said that students could bring clothes to dye or come to learn about the chemical reactions that cause the dye to bind to the fabric.

“When you’re growing up you see [tie-dyeing] and accept it happens that way, but you don’t know why,” Wolff said. “You never really realize that there’s a process behind it.”